JJ Lin threatens legal action over online rumours linking him to Kris Wu’s sex scandal
Singaporean pop star JJ Lin has taken swift legal actions against netizens who claimed that he and Taiwanese singer Wilber Pan are involved in Kris Wu’s sex scandal allegedly involving rape and underage girls.
Chinese-Canadian pop megastar Kris Wu was detained by Beijing police on suspicion of rape last week. A 19-year-old student Du Meizhu accused Wu of date-raping her when she was 17, drawing widespread condemnation of the singer on social media and causing several luxury brands to drop deals with him.
JJ Lin is represented by Shanghai Jiuze Law Firm, who posted a legal statement on Weibo on Sunday (1 August) refuting the defamatory claims. A total of 27 netizens from various platforms, including Weibo, Douban, Baidu Tieba and WeChat, have been named, along with their unique identifier, for falsely accusing JJ Lin and spreading rumours.
The lawyer's statement said these allegations had gravely impacted JJ Lin’s reputation, and in order to protect his legal rights, the law firm engaged by JJ Lin’s company JFJ Productions has requested netizens who are suspected of breaking JJ Lin’s reputation to immediately delete and stop spreading false information about JJ Lin, and stop all infringement acts. They will also monitor public opinions on the internet, continuously collect evidence of infringements, and hold these netizens fully accountable.
JFJ Productions also wrote on their Weibo, “The internet is not without laws, and you have to be responsible for all your words and actions. We hope to create a civilised and healthy internet environment with everyone.”
Wilber Pan’s studio has engaged Beijing Zhongchan Law Firm, who posted a similar legal statement on Weibo on Monday (2 August), with 11 users across Weibo, Douban and other Internet platforms identified.
Among all the accusers, the one that stood out is 23-year-old Chinese actor-singer Xie Minghao. Through his studio’s Weibo account, which was subsequently banned from posting by Weibo, Xie had, without evidence, claimed JJ Lin and Wilber Pan were involved in Kris Wu's alleged illegal activities.
However, Xie has been known for cooking up fake news, including faking invitations to a new year countdown event and a variety show, just to increase his popularity in China. His claims about JJ Lin and Wilber Pan met with backlash from netizens:
“There’s nothing else to boost discussions about you, so you’re tapping on this?”
“This person has been trying to generate topics about him for a long time.”
“Only you are able to put your life on the line (such a false claim is likely to put him behind bars) to stimulate discussions.”
“This is too funny. What kind of topic-boosting is this?”
Let this be a reminder to verify facts as part of the Internet community so as to curb the creation and dissemination of fake news.
Get more TV and movie news from Yahoo Lifestyle on our Entertainment page.
